Belle of the Nobel Gala.
Mirror mirror on the wall who was the fairest of them all? At this year’s Nobel Gala that is. Ebba von Sydow, who knows a thing or two when it comes to fashion, crowned the best dressed woman and the winner is Crown Princess Victoria. “Such class! There’s no doubt who won the fashion contest at this year’s Nobel! The bride to be was beaming. Her beautiful (purple) gown balanced elegance and trend, and her amethyst jewelry were perfectly matching. The lovely open back showed off the princess’ muscles.” Ebba was less impressed with the Queen’s pale two-piece: “A beautiful fabric but not the most exciting model, and the queen usually takes us by surprise with her cool Nobel gowns. A two-piece is never quite as glamorous.” About Princess Madeleine’s emerald green dress with black lace inserts, Ebba wrote: “A brave choice with a cancan feel, but not an easy color for a winter pale blonde to wear.” And it looked like both the princesses ended up wearing the so-called button tiaras (originally bejeweled bows owned by Karl Johan Bernadotte, and made into tiaras during the 1970's). As Nordstjernan predicted, Queen Silvia wore her favorite Sofia tiara - it was the 14th time she wore it for Nobel.

Reinfeldt: EU pledges climate cash to poorer nations.
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has announced that the European Union's member states have agreed to give €7.2 billion ($10.6 billion, 75.3 billion SEK) to help developing nations tackle climate change. "The EU total is equal to €2.4 billion per year, over the next three years, with voluntary pledges coming in from all 27 EU member states,” Reinfeldt said after a two-day EU summit in Brussels, held under the auspices of the Swedish EU presidency. The 'fast start' money is Europe's contribution to helping the developing world to adapt to global warming over the next three years and to encourage the ongoing UN climate change conference in Copenhagen to do more. "It was also possible to get contributions from all 27 member states and the European commission,” Reinfeldt said, as the voluntary pledges topped the €6 billion target set by the Swedish EU presidency. EU commission chief Jose Manuel Barros said he hoped other nations would now match the EU's ambitions. British premier Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy also demanded that leaders in Copenhagen agree a treaty that would be "legally binding within six months," and issued a new target for a global reduction in deforestation, which should reach 25 percent by 2015.

Father prosecuted for scolding boy.
A man in Lund, southern Sweden, was prosecuted for scolding his son’s bully. The man, known as Michael, has been charged with trespassing after going to the home of a boy who had been bullying his son and verbally scolding him. “The bullying stopped the same day, so it was worth it,” Michael, told a local newspaper. Michael is a highly educated university lecturer, and reportedly has a quiet and friendly demeanor. Moreover, he had never, until now, had contact with the justice system or the police. “It feels upsetting, and strange. But what should I have done otherwise?” he asks. The matter began on April 3rd last year, when his son Christoffer was being subjected to intense bullying. But with a culture of silence that existed at the school his son attended, Michael and his wife had been unaware of their son’s plight. “Christoffer was often sick and had a stomach ache. He didn’t want to go to school. But one day, the truth seeped out,” Michael said. When Michael and his wife took up the matter with their son's school and the class teacher, they made it clear that Christoffer was vulnerable. The school had a special group that handled such matters, but in this case the group decided to take no action, as the parents of the accused bullies believed that their children were innocent, according to Michael. “It was so frustrating. You must experience it yourself, how upsetting it is when your children are being bullied." Michael reached the final straw when his son came home one day saying that one of the bullies had hit him, and another had threatened that Christoffer would “die over Easter”. Michael decided that something had to be done, so he went over to the lead bully’s home to confront his parents. However, while the parents were not home, the bully was. “He understood immediately what I was there for. I was so angry, and I scolded him,” Michael said. The prosecution turns on how far inside the house Michael was. According to the bully and his sister, Michael was several meters inside the house, which would mean that a charge of trespassing might be sustained. However, according to Michael, he was just beside the doorframe, or just inside. And was I threatening? Yes I was, I said that if it happens again you will have a problem with me. That could perhaps be seen as a threat,” Michael said. “But what should I have done? I couldn’t see my son feel so awful. And the fact is that after that day the bullying stopped,” he added. He is irked that the bully has received the support of the school, while he is pilloried. The court proceedings to consider the trespassing charge will commence shortly.

Gypsets.
Gypset is a term for people who refuse to work 9-5, and who manage to combine a gypsy lifestyle with jetset travel. According to Julia Chaplin, author of the book “Gypset lifestyle”, a gypset is someone who values style, soul and creativity rather than a luxurious lifestyle. She says Lord Byron and Ernest Hemingway were typical gypsetters. “A gypsetter needs no career, and he needs no glamorous lifestyle, a gypsetter is a driven person who has thought deeply about how he/she wants to live life.” Dagens Nyheter met with one such gypsetter, Eugenia Perez. Eugenia can usually be found either surfing in Indonesia or boxing in Bangkok, if she is not, that is, fiddling with her Ph.D. thesis or working as a public analyst. “To tailor my life so that I can do what I feel passionate about, that’s a high quality life for me,” she says. Perez comes from Göteborg, but has lately been calling Costa Rica, Panama, Thailand, Indonesia, Portugal, Spain and France home, too. She is 28-years old and has been physically active, traveled and tried new things her entire adult life. But in spite of her mobile lifestyle, Eugenia doesn’t call herself restless. Rather, she says, she likes change, and contrast. “My different passions complement each other,” she explains. “If I was to only do physical activities, then my mind would be undernourished. And I would never be able to sit in an office every day.” Finding a hobby doesn’t seem too hard to do, but finding a way to live life like Eugenia isn’t been easy. “Living like I do takes careful planning and structure,” she says. “For example: Last spring we went to Fuerteventura to work on a scientific article, it meant I could surf before and after work.” Eugenia says she doesn’t want to get stuck anywhere. She wants freedom from many things. She also views material assets as obstacles in life. “I spend very little money on stuff,” she says. “I don’t even own a TV. A luxurious lifestyle to me, is to have lots of experiences, and to meet interesting people.”

Princess Madeleine's emerald green and black gown was a brave choice, but perhaps the color was a bit off for the pale blonde? Here she is seen escorting Oliver Williamson of the U.S. Nobel Prize Laureate in Economic Sciences.